Day 10: La Dunes Du Pyla to Arcachon.

A lie in today - before we knew it it was 8.15am. Packed up and left quite swiftly after a simple breakfast of pain aux chocolat, croissant, pain aux raisin and orange juice (not all of the above, we all have our favourites!). Hannah counted 7 hills today, but no where near the gradients of yesterday. Today was mostly riding through various districts on our way to Arcachon. Lovely big, gated, grand houses over looking the beach which reminded Adrian a bit of California. Plenty of cycle paths which you share with the pedestrians, not the most direct route through I am sure, but definitely safer than the roads which have got increasingly busy as we have headed north. Having left at 10.39am we arrived an hour later at our campsite. Disappointingly, for the first time it was a late entry after 2pm meaning we had to lock up the bikes at reception, unload as many bags as we could carry and head to the pool with them. It must be a French thing... I can't understand why when our pitch was free and ready for us it was a 'security risk' for us to enter the campsite early, especially as we were able to use the facilities anyway... Bonkers!!! (And highly irritating!!!!). At 2pm on the dot Kevin took us to our pitch which is very roomy, nestled in the pines next to the volley ball courts. They have some very weird rules here like 'for hygiene reasons, no washing lines'?.... Which everyone is ignoring of course!

The shop is fairly basic so we are using our emergency supply for tea again tonight - pasta pesto with an onion we happened to have left over from a couple of days ago. We do have milk though so I'm looking forward to a cup of tea this evening!

.... Just drinking the tea now whilst watching the children playing volley ball with our beach ball and some French kids.

We have 4 nights here before heading to Bordeaux for the end of our journey. A few things to do here, but hoping to see a bit of Arcachon and to have a bit of R&R.

A tiny 6.66 miles cycled today to end our journey up the west coast.

Our tiny pitch at the dunes site

Blackberries - very tasty 

Tents up in Arcachon - now for some washing!

Bit chilly in this pool!

Route day 10: 6.66 miles

Dune and Pine Facts

Pine trees grow 25 meters tall and live for 400 years

The sand dunes are the tallest in Europe, are 109 meters high and cover 6,800 hectares.

The area seems to be spelt in a number of different ways - 'Pyla', 'Pila' or 'Pilat' - I'm not sure what the difference is.

View from the top of the Dunes

Pines and dunes

The campsite and forest from the top of the dunes

Panorama 

Pines from the ground looking up

Day 9: Plage Maguide to La Dune Du Pyla

Today's ride was a trip to see the dunes. Dune du Pyla are huge - taller than the pine trees - and all research told me a trip to the west coast should always include a visit, we booked a night at one of 5 campsites situated along the length of the dunes. Coming from inland, we had a much hillier day today. Many tough climbs in the morning on the way to Biscarrosse Plage. The path is also narrower on this section and more lumps and bumps. A sign even warned of uneven surfaces on the cycle path. We stopped for lunch overlooking the ocean before the last few miles of the journey, definitely the toughest, up and down hills to date following the main road along the dunes. At least our campsite is the last in the row, so hopefully not too many more hills tomorrow! The children coped very well on the hills. Tom was definitely King of the Mountains  today and made it up every single one. Emily struggled as, having the older style Islabike, she finds it hard to change down into 1st gear in the grip so had to walk until I stopped and changed her gear for her, meaning that I then had to start again on a hill :-( Hannah took everything steadily, but did have to walk on some of the steeper sections towards the end of the day. They were happy walking along chatting to each other until it was flat enough for them to get on again and catch us up! 

The campsite is in a lovely location, although our pitch is dreadful, despite costing over 70€ - the price of a hotel room! It is obviously for a camper van with wooden sleepers down each side, only just big enough for our tent. The ground has sand on top, but presumably so the vans don't get stuck, underneath layers of gravel which proceeded to bend most of our pegs! It is also opposite a group of lads playing music loudly. When we wandered to the dunes later, there are some lovely sand pitches still free for tents right under the dunes. I can only assume they are reserved for people staying more than one night.... Shame.

After a dip in the pool to cool off we took three very excited children up to the dunes. Now, anyone who knows me knows how unsteady on my feet I am, as well a having a weak Achilles. I was a little worried about how I would get up the ridiculously steep sand slope. There is a ladder set into the sand to help you up, but it felt really unsteady under feet to me and I got a third of the way up before deciding to come back down. I was disappointed I hadn't seen over the other side. On the other hand, Tom has scaled the whole ladder in the time it took me to climb a third. Hannah was very nervous but conquered her fears and reached the top. Adrian took them over the top to see the view of the Atlantic Ocean and they started to go down the other side to the water, before deciding that coming back up without the help of a ladder on that side (less steep) would be too hard. Back at the top they then proceeded to run, hop and jump their way back down to me. The joy in their faces... They had loved every minute! Climbing sand dunes is not something you get to do every day! We decided due to the lack of anywhere to put a picnic rug on our pitch and an absence of any picnic tables on the site that we would eat out. We had pizza, salad and chips at the bar which were very tasty. We watched a bit of the entertainment a 'guess the film music', before heading back to the pumping dance music and our tent! Think I will be needing my ear plugs tonight!... Scrap that - they seem to have noticed young children going to bed in the vicinity and turned it off.

17.61 Miles cycled today and climbed 1100ft!

Packed up and ready to go

Lunch by the ocean after a few days in land

Shoes off ready for the climb!

View down the ladder from about half way up! - I'm waving at the bottom somewhere! 

Having fun

Running down

Jumping down! 

Route day 9: 17.61 miles

Hannah's thoughts: day 8

Today was a rest day and we went to the beach. I played in the sea because a I wanted to catch some fish for tea but I didn't catch any so I went on a slide into the water. I swam to a high platform and jumped off with daddy a 1000 times! We had fresh chicken salad for tea.

Hannah's thoughts: day 6

We got up with a slower start today. We cycled 25 miles, I loved it.when we got to the campsite we put the gent up and played Uno. We got dressed quickly and went to the swimming pool. It had great slides. When we got back we carried our food and ate tea on the beach and played in the park. 

Day 8: rest day

An amazing lightning display all around the lake last night which Adrian and I sat and watched for a while. No rain or thunder though and a very comfortable nights sleep.

What a lovely relaxing day we have had today. The weather came up trumps and has been sunny with white whispy clouds all day. After a slow start, we had a lazy breakfast of cereal, tea, croissants - the kids and Adrian had pain au raisin - a real luxury! We then headed to the beach for the day. I make it sound like its a long way away, but in fact it is the sites own beach and is about 100m from the tent. We spent the day sunbathing broken up by swimming in the warm, shallow, freshwater lake. The children played on the slides, in the play ground and dug sand pits. Hannah spent most of the day in the water trying to catch and touch the fish, unsuccessfully. She also enjoyed swimming out to and jumping off the diving platform. The twins had a go too, but needed my help to get back into the shallower water afterwards. For anyone looking for a child friendly site in France you could do no better than by this lake - it has many advantages over the strong Atlantic currents you find on the coast. 

Towards the end of the afternoon Adrian and I had a sneaky drink in the bar whilst still being able to see the children - another plus point - never far from the water. We had showers and compared sunburn :-( We have been very diligent using sun cream on everyone all holiday, but today we got the timing all wrong and did a rush job. Hopefully having smothered ourselves in aloe vera after showers, the red shoulders will have died down by tomorrow morning.

We are currently sitting on the picnic mat chilling and waiting for the rotisserie chicken we have ordered for tea to finish cooking. We have salad to go with it - yum! And makes a change from pasta!

Our thermarest chairs! Some salvation for our backs! A lazy morning breakfast.

Lunch by the campsite beach

Yummy chicken and salad for tea 

Cucumber needed finishing!

Day 7: Parentis-en-Born to Plage de Maguide

The noise from the Parentis-fete last night was unbelievable. Between the pumping karaoke and large group of teenagers singing football chants into the small hours, you could say the site was buzzing! The kids slept through the lot! I'm feeling a little jaded today. A relatively easy day today and again we missed the thunder and rain which we kept hearing. The first event before we had even made it back onto our route from the campsite was our first crash of the holiday. Emily rode too close to Tom, caught his back wheel, totally lost control and went flying, bike and all, into a ditch at the side of the road! She was shaken, as was I when I initially saw her go, but generally unhurt bar a few bumps and scratches. She was lucky not to break anything or that the ditch was just muddy and not actually full of water like others we had past!

After a short stop for savlon, plasters, wet wipes, sweets for bravery and a discussion on safe cycling we were off again heading towards Biscarrosse. I had been looking forward to this town as many people had mentioned it to me, but I was disappointed. The main aim was to replenish our food supplies having used our emergency food last night. The bike path followed the main road through industrial outskirts and then into the town. Although there was some pretty architecture, there was a distinct absence of shops in the centre - just estate agents and coffee shops. We managed to get a baguette and apricot cake! Apparently the only food shop was a big Super-U out of town. The bike route through the town however was the best signed yet and we got through quickly and headed to the lake. We found a shop next to a campsite and bought lunch, tea and emergency food. We then made our way round the lake to a lovely spot for a long hour lunch on a picnic bench by the shore. The kids had a paddle and declared that the water was warmer than the sea! 

It wasn't much further until we arrived at the resort Plage de Maguide. The campsite is straight on the lake with play things for the kids on the beach, slides going into the shallow water and even a jumping platform further out. We put up the tent trying to keep ahead of the grey clouds. The rain and thunder hit just as the tent was finished - great timing - well done Adrian! We all retreated to the bedroom to read/colour and see out the rain. It soon passed and while I washed cycle clothes, Adrian took the children to the beach. We cooked by the beach as well as there are plenty of seats there and treated the children to a ice cream from the shop, which is thankfully well stocked for our rest day here tomorrow. A friendly English family have lent us 2 chairs tonight so I am writing this in relative comfort, be it inside the tent as the thunder and lightning has just started again. Will make a cup of tea outside in a bit when it passes!.... This is the life!

13.55 miles cycled today and a day off tomorrow - the weather is meant to be variable... 

Cycling round the lake

View of the lake at lunchtime

Wiling away the time waiting for the rain to pass

The campsite beach - Hannah and Emily 

Route day 7: 13.55